


The Heart of the Ocean

by ShannaraIsles



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games)
Genre: AU, F/F, Gift Fic, In the style of the Grimm Brothers, fairytale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-05-26 04:58:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14993309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShannaraIsles/pseuds/ShannaraIsles
Summary: A Thedas fairytale, featuring a deliberately vague princess, my own Hawke, and recognizably canon characters. A birthday gift for a friend.





	The Heart of the Ocean

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kagetsukai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kagetsukai/gifts).



Once upon a time, long ago, there lived a princess on the shore of the Waking Sea. Dark of hair and eye, she was the jewel in her father's crown, spoiled with freedoms that others of her rank could only envy. She ranged far and wide alone and untroubled, but her favorite place of all was the place they called The Mermaid's Cove. Crystal blue waters washed over soft white sands, rock pools filled with secrets waiting to be discovered - it was a secluded paradise all her own.

But that was not the reason she loved it so, nor were those secrets what drew her to it.

Every fisherman had some tale to tell of the mermaid - of caught nets freed by clever fingers; of wrecks they had survived, thanks to her. Of small gifts worth a king's ransom left by their boats in thanks for some small kindness or other. Of wounds healed with kisses; a mermaid's magic touch. They told of blue eyes as bright as the summer sky; a slender form, half-woman, half-fish, with a tail whose scales shone in the sunshine, teal iridescence like the calm sea at rest. They had all seen her, yet she never stayed long, fearful of being caught by selfish men who would use her wild beauty for their own profit.

In every tale, they all described the same being, and never once was it said that she was anything more than alone. The princess felt that loneliness in her heart, and she set out to become the mermaid's friend.

She sought out the wisdom of the Witch of the Wilds - Flemeth, a wizened hag most avoided in fear of what she might do or say. Yet the princess showed no fear, and Flemeth seemed to like what she saw, offering advice with just one condition ... that when the time came, she would listen to the wisdom of the sea, and obey. The princess gladly agreed, and left the witch's dwelling with hope in her heart.

For days uncounted, the princess sat on the rocky shore of the cove, combing her shining dark hair and singing. Her voice grew strong and steadfast, filling the lonely cove with the sound of friendship and love and invitation. And slowly, she became aware of another voice joining hers - softly in the first days, growing ever more confident as time went on. The princess often looked, but never found, the origin of the sweet, shy voice that lent harmony to her own. Yet the sound of the mermaid's voice filled her with joy. Flemeth had said she would come, if the invitation was made by a girl who offered no threat, and so she was proved right. But far more delightful was the knowledge that there was no loneliness in the mermaid's voice when she wound harmony to the princess' melody.

As time went on, the princess began to notice movement beneath the crystal waters of the cove. The flash of a shimmering tail; the suggestion of a face amid the saltwater weeds. She longed to dive in and swim with the mermaid, but Flemeth's warnings held her back, knowing that such eagerness would scare her new friend away. She must be patient, and learn to bide her time.

And at last the glorious day came when the mermaid came to her, rising silently from the water to lay delicate hands on the sun-kissed rock. Her eyes were as blue as the bright summer sky; soft webbing joined her fingers; ropes of seaweed and bright coral adorned her form; and when she smiled, two dimples puckered her cheeks.

"Princess, why do you sing?"

The princess smiled, her face a-glow with soft delight.

"I sing for you, mermaid, so that you are not lonely."

The mermaid's curious smile warmed.

"I am not lonely anymore," she said, daring to rise a little more from the water, showing off the beauty of her shimmering tail beneath the sunshine. "My name is Poppy, princess, if you wish to use it."

"That is a lovely name," the princess answered, shy but buoyant with her success. "As lovely as you are."

The mermaid giggled, her tail splashing in the saltwater of the cove. She touched the ivory comb that lay on the rock.

"Why do you drag teeth through your hair?"

It was the princess' turn to giggle, raising the comb to show her new friend the wonder of how it worked. First words and wonder turned to laughter and friendship long before the sun began its journey to the shore and night, and the princess was filled with regret when she knew the time had come to go.

"Oh, Poppy, if I could stay here forever, I would," she cried aloud. "You are sweet and kind, and I have so longed to be your friend."

"But you walk the land, and I swim the seas," the mermaid told her with a gentle smile. "Our paths were made to be taken alone. You have a life on land, and duty besides. When the time comes, though my friendship will never fade, you will forget about me."

"I will _never_ forget my friend," the princess swore.

And she never did.

Days became weeks, became months, became years, and the princess grew into unmatched beauty on land. Tall and slender, dark hair shining, dark eyes warm, she became the prize that princes fought for, yet she had no care for those who used such force as a means to claim her. She had friends among them, friends who loved her for her wildness and warmth, but friendship was not love, not for a prince. Her heart yearned toward her mermaid - to soft eyes and clever fingers, and stories of the ocean she longed to explore at Poppy's side. Every day, she went to the cove; every day the princess and the mermaid played and sang, and forgot for a time the landsmen waiting to take her away. Every day she returned with gifts from the deeps filling her pockets, and the memory of a mermaid's kiss burning her lips.

Then came the terrible day when the king forbade his wayward daughter from ever going to the cove again. She must marry, for the good of the kingdom, for the peace of the people. Because he loved her, he had chosen for her a prince from among those she called friend, a prince of golden hair and amber-bright eyes; a prince who loved her more dearly than any and cared little for the violence embraced by his fellows, though he was proficient in every tourney. The king was resolute, and steeled his heart against her entreaties; she must put away her childish pursuits and silly fancies, and forget there had ever been a mermaid at all.

The princess cried bitter tears, pleading for her father to change his mind and let her go back to the cove, if only to explain to her dearest mermaid, if only to say goodbye. But the king would not relent, fearful of losing his only child to the magic and mystery of the ocean. He had the princess locked in her rooms to await her wedding day, and escorted under guard to the Chantry to say her vows. He watched as his weeping daughter did her duty in wedding the prince who loved her, and left his castle to take her place as a landsman's wife.

And, if this were another kind of story, that would have been the end of it.

But rumor raced, as rumors do, and the fishermen told the Waking Sea of all they heard. They told of the weeping princess and her marriage, of the sadness they felt at no longer hearing the mermaid singing with her royal friend in the seclusion of the cove. Bereft and abandoned, the mermaid wept for the friend she had loved, and no more visited the shores. Nets that were caught were torn asunder; boats that were wrecked were lost at sea, and the men within drowned in storms they had not feared before; wounds that had once been nothing to concern a man became a horror with no kisses to heal them. For the mermaid's heart was broken, and she mourned the loss of her love, deep beneath the waves of the lonely cove. The fishermen muttered and cursed the mermaid for abandoning them; cursed the princess for abandoning their merry helper to nothing but sadness and grief.

Yet not all turned their hearts from the princess and her mermaid. The prince, whose name was Cullen, was touched to the heart by the grief in his new wife, and conspired to free her from the guards that kept her confined in her father's castle. He had loved her long, but had no wish to see her so unhappy. He brought his bride to The Mermaid's Cove, and bade her sing for her love, and swore an oath to the Maker's own Bride that no harm would come to them by his hand.

Great was the joy of the mermaid when she heard her beloved's voice, and wild was the rejoicing of the princess as she was reunited with her love. They kissed and embraced and sang together, and the prince looked on, his own heart in pieces. They were so happy together, the princess and her mermaid, and he saw there was no place for him. Yet as he turned to leave, his heart heavy in his chest, the mermaid called him back.

"Rare it is to meet a landsman whose heart is greater than his greed," she sang, opening her hand to him in friendship. "I would not break that heart, for all that my own heart bleeds. I give to you the dearest treasure of my soul, and ask but this in return - that you do not keep her from me when her time comes."

As she spoke, the princess was reminded of her promise to Flemeth, so many years before. When the mermaid spoke, it was with the wisdom of the sea, and she, for all her wildness, was bound to obey. She looked to the prince, the friend whom she loved and had bound herself to in marriage, and loved him al the more for the selfless kindness in his reply.

"I would not keep her from you even now," the prince told the mermaid, "though my heart aches to give her up."

"My mortal span is longer than yours shall be, and so shall hers be, when the time is right," the mermaid told him. Her brilliant eyes turned to the princess, her beloved. "Your heart is not cold enough to give such kindness no reward."

The princess sighed, knowing this for wisdom. Her marriage had been made for peace; where would that peace go if she broke the heart of her kind husband?

"I will go with you and be your wife, if you will swear me this," she told the prince. "That we shall live beside the sea, and on the day that white begins to stain my hair, you will allow me to return to my mermaid and never seek me again."

Such a promise was more than the prince could have hoped for, and gladly did he swear that oath. In thanks, the mermaid kissed his brow, and with that kiss, healed the hurts of his mind and body, hurts gained in service that might have broken him were it not for the love he bore her own beloved. The princess bade a tender farewell to her beloved mermaid, in the surety that they would be together again. Then the prince took his bride by the hand, and together, they left The Mermaid's Cove.

And in his own land, he built his princess a castle on the shore of the Waking Sea, where the mermaid would visit from time to time. The princess bore him a son and a daughter, and taught them to love both the land and the sea as she did. There was no lack of love in their home, nor for their people, yet each time the mermaid swam away, the princess loosed a single tear for the years that had kept them apart. Still, she loved her prince, and the children they raised, and for many years their rule was just and kind, until the day came when white stained the dark of the princess' hair, and they knew this time of theirs was done.

On that day, the princess kissed her prince, embraced her children, and walked into the Waking Sea, never to return.

But soon after, the fishermen's stories changed. No longer did they mutter against the princess, or curse the mermaid who had been abandoned. They told a tale now of The _Singing_ Cove, where two voices could be heard raised in joyful song; of laughter and love, and two guardians beneath the waves. They spoke of nets laden with fish that were herded to them; of wrecks where no man was lost, and the boat itself later found in the shallows, fit for repair and reuse. They shared tales of a dark head of hair beside the honey-brown of the other beneath the waters, of red and teal fish tails shimmering together, entwined among the saltwater weeds. And the prince, now old and bent, spent many hours beside the sea, smiling to see two heads, two tails, two hands waving to him as the two mermaids frolicked for his enjoyment.

They say if you love something, you should let it go. If that love is true, it will find its way back to you. The Singing Cove is forgotten now; the prince and the princess and the mermaid lost to the mists of time. But sailors will still swear to have seen the princess and her mermaid among the waves, joined now and forever in life and love.

The landsmen forget, and the seafolk are no longer so frequent a sight, but for land and sea joined in love, the memory remains.

Always.


End file.
